Foamed insulation coating on pipes and methods therefor
AssigneeShawcor Ltd.
InventorsRoberto Varagnolo, Marcos Mockel, Catherine Lam, Dennis Wong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of providing a foamed insulation coating on at least a portion of a pipe, including extruding a melt stream over the pipe portion. The melt stream includes a matrix polymer and expandable fillers in an unexpanded state, the melt stream being maintained at a sufficiently high temperature to maintain the matrix polymer in extrudable form and at a sufficiently high pressure to maintain the expandable fillers in the unexpanded state. Once extruded, the expandable fillers are permitted to expand into an expanded state at a lower pressure.
Claims22
An insulated pipe section comprising:
- a pipe section;
- a foamed insulation coating at least a portion of the pipe section;
- and
- the foamed insulation coating having been formed by extruding a melt stream comprising expandable fillers in an unexpanded state over at least the portion of the pipe section and permitting the expandable fillers in the extruded melt stream to expand into an expanded state after extruding.
A kit comprising:
- a first master batch including expandable fillers in an unexpanded state, the first master batch being in solid form;
- and
- instructions for combining the first master batch with a matrix polymer, and melting the mixture to form a melt stream for extrusion over at least a portion of a pipe to provide at least the portion of the pipe with a foamed insulation coating.
An insulated pipe section comprising:
- a pipe section;
- a first insulation layer that is closer to an outer surface of the pipe section than a second insulation layer, the first insulation layer comprising a first insulating material having a first melting point that is higher than an expected temperature at the outer surface of the pipe section;
- and
- the second insulation layer over an outer surface of the first insulation layer, the second insulation layer comprising a second insulating material having a second melting point that is lower than the expected temperature at the outer surface of the pipe section;
- the first insulation layer providing sufficient thermal insulation to achieve an expected temperature at the outer surface of the first insulation layer that is lower than the second melting point.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.